Jeff Judy

Jeff's Thoughts - October 3 , 2007

Like Museums?

If you like to visit museums, you've probably seen a lovely vase, or gorgeous crown, in a heavy glass case. It never changes, in its protected environment, no one ever takes it out and uses it.We just admire it.

Is your annual strategic plan in its own glass case?

Strategic plans are meant to be living things, not museum pieces. Believe me, I've been in a lot of organizations where the strategic plan is dead, a perfectly preserved relic that is never splattered with the mud of daily business operations, never blemished by the stresses of competing for customers.

Here are some of the signs that a strategic plan is actually a living guide to the business, that it means something:

Your strategies change as you get evidence of their strengths or shortcomings. You don't wait until next year's planning session to tweak your strategies.

Even if they don't use the words "strategic plan", front line employees know the key themes of your strategies, and use them to make judgments in their dealings with prospects, customers, suppliers, and so on.

Management has an explicit plan for keeping employees in touch with key strategies. Key strategies are routinely mentioned in internal communications, and tweaks to the plan are quickly shared with everyone who has to apply them.

Annual planning meetings start with a clean slate. They are not just tweaks of previous year's reports.

On the other hand, you probably have a museum piece on your hands if:

This year's plan is almost identical to last year's plan, which looks a lot like the previous plan, which looks like . . .

You can't explain the heart of the plan in one paragraph. You haven't internalized what it means for the business.

The only people who ever talk about the organization's general strategies for success are the board and the executive committee. It would never occur to any front line employee that the company has a plan, period.

To run a more successful operation, you really have two choices:

Make your strategic plan a living part of your business, something that actively engages management and employees every day, and that adapts to changes in conditions.

Save yourself the time and money that goes into making a strategic plan, that is, just don't bother. You're not using the plan anyway, and this at least frees up some resources.